Tag: friendship

  • We’re Just Friends!

    If you’re creative enough, those same gifts that are originally made for a significant other can easily be turned into gifts for your friends. However, here are some gift ideas you can also make or buy for your FRIENDS (this one’s for all you single people out there).

    • Sweets- There’s more to this holiday than just chocolate, treating your friends with a gift basket filled with all of your friend’s favorite snacks.
    • Plushie- Teddy Bears are also not the only hype of the day, a small plushie could always make an old pal of yours feel nice.
    • Inside Joke Gift- Make your buddy laugh by bringing up a memory only the two of you share by turning it into a gift.
    • Appreciation Letter- The name is self-explanatory, but of course some appreciation does not hurt in relationships, even friendships.
    • DIY- Take this opportunity to be creative and come up with anything you think your friend might enjoy (such as a coupon book, or a “10 reasons why I love you”) keep it platonic!

  • Missing the Class of 2019

    If it hasn’t been said already, then I’ll be the first to say it: this school year is extremely different compared to last year. However, one thing that has especially impacted me has been the absence of alumni. It is uncertain how I got so close to them, but I know for a fact that it is definitely not the same without them.

    During the previous school year, you would find me hanging out with a group full of seniors. Like I said, I don’t really know how I winded up there in the first place, but being around them sure gave me pleasure. Conversations with them made me feel welcomed, and being a part of them made me feel included.

    Aside from that friend group, I also gained some friends from a college readiness program located at Long Beach City College called Upward Bound. I did not expect all my friends there to be ready so soon. Now that they’re in college and the majority of them no longer attend the program the same way, it feels different.

    Not only that, but last school year the newspaper production class was full of seniors. It was a class full of leadership as well as love and passion. Without this love and passion they held, the school newspaper could not have been the same. The laughter and inside jokes shared among the class brought a whole new meaning to journalism for me.

    Overall, these people left such a huge impact on me. Meeting them is possibly one of the greatest things that has ever happened to me. In all honesty, seniors should be appreciated more and not taken for granted while they’re around.

    Although I no longer see them or hang out with them in the same way anymore, the experience was fun while it lasted. The connections are still there and the friendships still exist. I hope they’re all doing well and that they’re surrounded by people as amazing as they all are. In the end, people come and go in life, but it’s what they leave behind that matters.

  • Too Close For Comfort?

    In my opinion friendships only grow when you are close to each other, whether it may be physically or mentally. Society has made closeness an uncomfortable sanctum for friendship.

    In other words, people think that being physically and mentally close to someone means that they are bound to be together romantically, but that’s not necessarily true.

    I personally think that closeness can encompass physical actions towards one another in a friendly passion. For instance, two friends of the opposite sex or same sex can hug or cuddle without having feelings.

    Society has made people subject to thinking that close encounters with other individuals is uncomfortable or unacceptable in public.

    This could be because the media shows closeness only in the form of a relationship. I believe friends have the ability to not have feelings for one another and still be a caring and understanding person towards them. Society should be more open minded and allow closeness in public.

    The amount of people who do not accept closeness between friends in public is extremely high in my opinion. Therefore, the discomfort of society is out of control.

    Students at Poly, such as Marc Hines, a sophomore, said, “Boys sometimes believe that being close to a girl or opposite sex can make it look like [you] are together and that causes many problems.”

    I asked him why he felt as though there were problems created and he could only say that he was afraid of being questioned by his friends. If that is the reason why closeness is not accepted in society, then technically closeness is just seen as different for other people.